The current Lincoln County Superintendent of Education, Terry Brister, is leaving his seat open for one of two qualifying candidates this election cycle.

To qualify, candidates must have no less than four years classroom and/or administrative experience and a valid Class AA Administrator’s certificate. In Mississippi, the elected superintendent for each county serves a four-year term as the chief administrative officer of the school district. They serve as the executive secretary of the county board of education but have no vote in the proceedings before the board of education and no voice in fixing its policies.

The superintendent is the director of all schools in the county outside the city districts. In Lincoln County this is four K-12 schools: Loyd Star, Bogue Chitto, West Lincoln and Enterprise attendance centers.

The two candidates for Lincoln County Superintendent of Education are Jason Case and Mickey Myers.

Jason Case (R) is currently serving in his 15th year as principal of West Lincoln Attendance Center, with a total of 30 years in public education. Case graduated from West Lincoln in 1982,  got his Bachelor of Science in education from Delta State University in 1986 and his master’s degree in instructional leadership from University of Southern Mississippi in 1997. Case started his career as a basketball and baseball coach teaching science and biology.

Case said during his tenure as principal at West Lincoln the school has had a great deal of success; since 2003 West Lincoln has been recognized as a Superior Performing School/Star School by the Mississippi Department of Education and recognized nationally in 2012 as being a National Blue Ribbon School.

Case said if elected, his focus as superintendent would be two-fold: making sure the environment at each school is safe, orderly and conducive to learning and instruction.

“We have outstanding teachers in Lincoln County, and I want to be a supporting cast to them so that they can do their jobs effectively by providing resources to them training for them that they need,” Case said.

“Reminds me of an old football coach Vince Lombardi who was with Green Bay; he made the comment that ‘Excellence is achieved by mastery of the fundamentals.’” Case said. “And I think the two fundamentals of focusing on the environment at each campus and focusing on instruction, if we keep that main focus then I think that excellence will come.”

Case said his goals as superintendent would be to maintain and improve each school in Lincoln County and build upon the strengths the system already has. He said his idea of excellence is students achieving and reaching their potential in safe environments with proponents that are striving to make better.

Case said with the budget and funding, it is important to spend money where it matters most — the students and their achievement. Case said he, like any parent, wants his children to be safe as well as receiving quality education.

“I believe anything that you do in life it should be a calling, and I feel like the Lord is leading me to seek this position,” Case said. “And I’m not a person that toots my own horn, I don’t like to boast but I think that the success that I’ve had at West Lincoln as the leader here kind of speaks for itself. And I would like to influence and use my experience with all schools.”

Case said he is happily married to his wife, Mary Karen, of 27 years. They have four children: Julie, Jay, Jared and Jana.

Mickey Myers (D) has taught, coached, driven a school bus and served as principal for Bogue Chitto Attendance Center in his 33 years in Lincoln County schools. Myers graduated from West Lincoln in 1978 and Copiah-Lincoln Community College in 1980 with an associative arts degree. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from University of Southern Mississippi in 1982 and received his master’s in educational leadership from William Carey in 1997.

Myers has served as principal at Bogue Chitto since 2012 and during that time Myers said the school has experienced tremendous success with credit to the entire school family. Bogue Chitto has been recognized as a High Performing School by the Mississippi Department of Education and a graduation rate of 82 percent in 2013 and 93 percent in 2014. Bogue Chitto has also seen an enrollment increase of 13.8 percent and 97 percent of third-graders passed the third-grade reading gate on the initial assessment. It has also been recognized as a National Beta Club School of Distinction and a Title I Distinguished School.

Myers said coming from an immediate family with a combined 200 years of service to Lincoln County schools, he has a passion for education and the public school system. One of those was his wife, Karen, whose death was met with what Myers said was an overwhelming sense of support from a community he now wants to give back to.

“Karen taught kindergarten at Bogue Chitto and died after a courageous battle with cancer […] in 2003,” he said. “I can’t begin to explain how good the people of Lincoln County were to us during that time and I feel a sense of indebtedness to those people who were so [incredible]. We were on prayer lists in every church in the county regardless of denomination, regardless of membership.

“I see the superintendent position as vital to the success and prosperity of Lincoln County and also as a platform to give back to people who have been very good to me,” Myers said.

Myers said Lincoln County schools are a gem in southwest Mississippi with quality education, safe environments and parental involvement — an important status to maintain, especially in recruiting more quality educators. Attracting highly competent teachers and maintaining and upgrading facilities at all four county schools are some of his goals, he said.

“I specifically praise Mr. Terry Brister and the Lincoln County School Board [and its staff],” Myers said. “There have been significant upgrades on our campuses since 2000. I travel a lot with our athletic teams […] I go on other campuses, and they’re not as fortunate as we are in Lincoln County.”

Myers said other attainable goals include increasing vocational-technical opportunities, extend band to all schools within the district and provide reading specialists at the middle-school level. Also, encouraging legislators and officials to implement programs that maintain accountability but which restore the fun to teaching.

“I crave accountability in our school system,” Myers said. “I want to be accountable, teachers to be held accountable, students to be held accountable […] But from the previous school year we’re taking away some of the personal element of teaching, and it should be fun. It is a very rewarding profession but our teachers are overly stressed in some areas of school life, and that concerns me. It produces burnout and teachers who leave the profession.”

Myers said he would be a wise steward of the money for LCSD to maintain the sound fiscal condition enjoyed now. Making sure money goes to the right things while striving to lobby for full funding of Mississippi Adequate Education Program.

Myers and his late wife Karen have three children, Blaine Alexis, Braden and Brook Elizabeth. He is an ordained minister at Antioch Primitive Baptist Church.